Maria Bryant
Food and Healthy Weight Co-Lead
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At the heart of ActEarly, our work is built on a solid partnership, leveraging insights from different knowledge bases and experiences, joint by our commitment to develop action-oriented, tangible evidence to improve child and family health.
Collaborating hand-in-hand with community organisations, local governments in Bradford and Tower Hamlets, we co-create processes to design and action interventions, while ensuring we carry out rigorous evaluations so that our projects can have a lasting impact in local children and families.
Our projects focus on targeted areas (Tower Hamlets and Bradford); child-centred approach; nutrition and food improvement; partnerships; community engagement; multiple research methods; holistic approaches; policy impact.
The core of our work is underpinned by health determinants shaping eating practices and activity levels among our ActEarly communities. We look at access to affordable food, the impact of unhealthy food advertising, the uptake and quality of free school meals and whole school approaches to food, and the role of outdoor spaces in fostering wellness. Together we work to foster a healthier, happier future for local children and families.
This project maps existing community food assets which support food insecure families in Tower Hamlets and Bradford. It seeks to understand what local support provies the most helpful options for families experiencing food insecurity. Findings will help local and national governments to invest in resources that are accessible and appropriate for local communities. To find out more, visit us here.
The Food Improvement Goals in Schools (FIGS) study evaluates school food provision in a new School Food Improvement Programme “Fantastic Food in Schools” in Tower Hamlets. This initiative aims to enhance free school meal uptake and promote whole school approaches to food. Our qualitative insights will contribute to informing and refining the programme for Tower Hamlets’ primary schools.
This evaluation, from the Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRC) with Tower Hamlets, looks at the impact of discretionary universal free school meals schemes in the four london boroughs that have been providing the offer in primary schools.
Food consumption pattern and nutrient intakes in children living in Tower Hamlets (Action on Salt and Sugar Project): This study investigates the dietary daily patterns and nutritional uptake of children in Tower Hamlets. Key sources of saturated fats, sugars and salt will be determined to help inform upstream nutrition policies.
To find out more, visit us here.
This project maps School Food Systems and co-designed the implementation of an intervention for whole school approaches to food. We offer this online resource and free tools and support for schools. To find out more, visit us here.
Transforming Yorkshire’s Food System: this UKRI multidisciplinary linked project aims to transform the Yorkshire food system to benefit both human health and wellbeing, as well as the planet. To find out more, visit us here.
A recent initiative includes a citizen science project with 50 young people gathering data from their schools on Free School Meals allowance, which they will take themselves to a Parliamentary event.
Partnering with local health departments in London, we link the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) participants to their health records. Our research on childhood obesity’s health impact incorporates ethnic-specific BMI adjustments for children from diverse backgrounds. We support local authorities in implementing these adjustments for better health communication reflecting fairer weight categorisation and better family services.
The study adopts a supportive and inclusive approach to addressing child health and weight concerns in families. Through the NCMP, the project seeks to improve school engagement by promoting comprehensive health and wellbeing initiatives, focusing on families who have children identified with having excess weight.
This new project facilitates the set-up of auto-enrolment across Yorkshire and several local authorities across England. This has resulted in a significant uptake in free school meals and pupil premium funding,
supporting many children and families
Want to find out more about Act Early and our work? Email us to ask questions, find out about volunteering or share your ideas.
The UK Prevention Research Partnership is a £50 million multi-funder initiative that supports novel research into the primary prevention of non-communicable diseases to improve population health and reduce health inequalities.